1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium loading device for loading into the body of the device a package which contains a single or plural disks such as a CD, a CD-ROM, a DVD, and/or a PD, or a package which contains recording means other than disks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently there has been proposed a disk unit which permits disks of different types to be loaded therein at a time. According to such a disk unit, both a disk for reproduction only and a recordable disk, such as a combination of CD or CD-ROM and DVD-RAM, or a combination of DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM, are housed within a single disk package and the package is loaded into the disk unit.
In such a disk unit, when the disk package has been loaded therein, it is necessary to recognize the type of each disk contained in the disk package, especially whether the disk is of a RAM type or a ROM type, as well as the contents recorded in each disk.
In such a case, TOC data, for example, of each of the loaded disks is read out using an optical head and determination is made as to the type of the disk and the contents of recorded information. Alternatively, the difference in thickness from the cover surface to the recording surface of the disk is detected or the track density is detected to determine the type of the disk. In this case, however, a long time is required from the time when the disk is loaded up to the time when its type is determined and a shift is made to a reproducing operation.
In this connection, if a memory board is attached to the disk package and the type of each disk and TOC data are stored beforehand in the memory board for each disk package, then when the disk package has been loaded into the disk unit, it is possible, by making access to the memory board, to grasp the types of all the disks contained in the disk package as well as the contents such as index information. In such a device, however, it is necessary that a connection terminal of the memory board attached to the disk package and a contact provided on the device body side be brought into contact with each other upon loading of the disk package into the device body.
Heretofore, as a concrete example of connecting a connection terminal of the memory board mounted on the recording medium side with a contact provided on the device body side, there has been known such an example as shown in FIG. 9 in which a cassette tape of DVC is loaded onto the body of a digital video device.
FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view showing a cassette holder of a digital video device body.
As shown in FIG. 9, a connection terminal 32 of a memory board is attached to a side end face 31a of a cassette tape 31 of DVC. On the other hand, on a side face 33a of the cassette holder is provided a contact 34 formed by a metallic plate spring or the like. In this example, the cassette tape 31 is inserted into the device body while the connection terminal 32 of the memory board slides on the contact 34 provided on the cassette holder side.
In the cassette holder shown in FIG. 9, however, the elastic force of the contact 34 acts as a resistance force during loading of the cassette tape 31, thus giving rise to the drawback that the cassette tape inserting load is large and so is the cassette tape ejecting load.
Moreover, if such a connection mechanism as shown in FIG. 9 is applied to a disk package loading structure in which the foregoing disk package containing plural disks is inserted longitudinally into the device body, the distance of the sliding motion between the wall surface of the inserted disk package and the contact becomes long, so that not only a load is imposed always on the disk package but also the contact slides a long distance on any other portion than the connection terminal of the cassette pack, for example the surface of a plastic wall. As a result, the plastic wall surface is scraped by the contact and hence not only the cassette pack is flawed but also the contact is stained, thus easily causing a defective connection between the contact and the connection terminal on the package side.
The problems involved in such a connection mechanism arise not only in a disk-containing package but also in a tape-containing package or a package containing a single or plural memory elements.